


rather be under you than the stars tonight

by jessequicksters



Category: Marvel, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Comfort, Established Relationship, Fluff, Lost in space - Freeform, M/M, Outer Space, Rescue Missions, STEVE IS STUCK IN A POD IN SPACE, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-19
Updated: 2018-09-19
Packaged: 2019-07-14 11:42:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16039784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jessequicksters/pseuds/jessequicksters
Summary: Steve accidentally ejects himself from a spaceship in an escape pod. Tony's voice on the other end of the line is the only thing keeping him together in this vast, cruel realm of emptiness they call space.





	rather be under you than the stars tonight

**Author's Note:**

> I really wanted to write a Space!AU and this was the only premise I could think of.

“What’s your location, Steve? Give it to me.”

“Hundred clicks north of nothing, just beneath the pitch black dish of empty space,” Steve huffs. Listening to Tony’s voice on the intercom is easing his anxiety only slightly; at least he knows that they’re still within the clasp of the same galaxy. He was warned of black holes and the way they suck in matter, light and everything else you know and love—and he’s pretty sure he hasn’t drifted into one. Yet.

“Okay, okay. I’ll fix this. I’ll try to get the ship’s transponder to zero in on your pod’s frequency. Radio still works, which is a good sign, but something’s blocking the pairing device, which is keeping me from finding you the easy way and—”

“Tony, I don’t need to know the details. I am floating in a tiny pod in the middle of nowhere, the last thing I need to hear is everything that’s gone wrong with the only thing keeping me alive,” Steve says, hearing his voice shake at the end. He takes a deep breath. He knows that Tony’s doing his best. He knows.

He also knows how much of an idiot he had been to have accidentally gotten into a live escape pod by accident. At the very least, Tony has been kind about it. 

“Of course, shit. Sorry. Working on it,” Tony replies, and Steve can hear the frantic sounds of Tony tinkering in the background. He’s picturing Tony taking the entire mainframe apart. He’d tear it apart as quickly as he could put it back together, maybe not as carefully or as methodically as most people would try to be with an alien spaceship, but it was Tony after all.

“Should’ve stayed in Manhattan, huh,” Tony says after a pause on the line. Steve didn’t want to bother him too much while he was focusing on, well, saving him, but hearing Tony’s voice really did soothe his nerves.

Steve just chuckles as softly as he can, as if every breath could be his last. “Yeah. Don’t know what I was thinking, going on this trip.”

“Neither,” Tony replies quickly. “I mean, Xandar? Leave it to Quill to convince us to go meet some of his space allies and then put us on a spaceship to drive ourselves back to Earth.”

“It was a stupid idea to begin with.”

“Ridiculous.”

“Meeting the Nova Corps wasn’t even worth it. I’d rather sit in front of the UN.”

Tony bursts into a laugh then. “That bad? Oh, boy. I do owe you big time when we get back, then.”

“Absolutely,” Steve says. He shifts a little in his seat, trying to lean back and stretch his spine out a little bit. He knows his pod isn’t even moving, but he can’t even bring himself to take off his seatbelt. It’s just a lot to take in—the sheer nothingness in front of him. He used to think stars were beautiful until they were the only fucking things in sight for what seemed like an endless stretch of space and time.

“Hey, Steve?” Tony says, voice gentle.

“Yeah?”

“Close your eyes, will you, sweetheart. I want you to just picture me.”

“Okay,” Steve says, readily complying. Rather the darkness in his head than the darkness out there.

“Space fucking sucks, I know.” 

Steve laughs out loud this time, feeling the vibrations rippling in his chest, ribs expanding and the air flowing in and out of his diaphragm. Feels the way his chest warms a little when he hears Tony smiling through the radio. Feels that warmth spreading through his body when he pictures Tony smiling.

“Just… think of the two of us back home on your favorite sofa in my office. The one I’m supposed to use for closing deals with my clients—" 

“That’s not what we use it for,” Steve cuts in, feeling that heat come back in waves.

“Not with _you_ , no. Its original purpose still stands, but whatever. You and me, on that sofa, and I’m holding you and your head is on my shoulder...”

“Tony…” Steve exhales, releasing some of the tension he’d been building up. It’s not even about that damn sofa anymore. It’s just the thought of Tony holding him, keeping him close and warm all the while he’s just floating around, untethered to anything, that’s breaking down the stress. But the more he thinks about where he is now, with the apparent lack of anyone or anything to hold on to, the more that tension builds, with pangs of anger.

“You still with me, Steve?” Tony asks. 

“I just need a moment,” Steve says, trying to steady his breathing. Thinking of Tony is just too much for him at a time like this, even when he’s everything that he needs and wants right now. He just can’t do it without nearly combusting on the inside.

“Moment’s yours,” Tony replies quietly. He then decisively adds, “I love you.”

“I love you too, Tony.” At least that was something he could say almost instinctively and without pressure, like a mantra to keep his soul grounded. He can’t believe that Strange’s meditation classes have finally come to good use, now of all times.

He hears Tony furiously typing on the other side of the line, with various buzzing sounds from the computer firing up and pinging like there’s no tomorrow. It sounded like stepping into his workshop when all hell was breaking loose and DUM-E was struggling to put out ten fires at once.

“Is everything okay?” Steve says, trying to picture the scene in front of Tony. He pictures screens lighting up, alarms going off, and different shades of red and yellow and warm hues that he can almost feel on his face. He even sees a bit of the white light through his closed eyes—wait.

He opens them at last and sees a huge faint glowing orb peeking out from behind a pocket of darkness in the far end of his window view to the right. It must be one of Xandar’s suns that have only just come out from behind one of Tranta’s bigger planets. That was why he couldn’t even see anything at first. Steve sees it a little more clearly now, as the light from the sun starts outlining its massive form.

“Tony, Tony, I got something!” 

“Hold up, Steve, just a little more and I should be able—wait, what did you get?”

“A sun, I see a sun in front of me. White light, coming in from the northeast on a rather large planet. No rings, definitely not a gas giant, and no moons in sight, so from my bearings I could guess that planet could be Morag?” He can focus on this, shuffling through his memories on the planets and star maps. It makes him feel a little more in-control of the situation now.

“Morag? Did you say Morag?”

“Yeah,” Steve nods, even though Tony can’t see him.

“Okay, okay, I can work with that. I’ll just input that into the ship’s navigator and, shit, seatbelt.” Tony sounds like he’s knocked over thirty different things in the past five seconds, which is only slightly worrying.

“Steve, I am coming. Hold your position and please, for the love of god, don’t eject yourself deeper into Andromeda,” Tony says.

“That’s not funny Tony,” Steve says, even though his heartbeat is picking up a little and he’s trying to bite back a smile.

“It’s only funny because I can see you now,” Tony says, and Steve immediately leans into the glass of his pod and looks out into space. For the first time since leaving Earth, he’s not filled with a gut-churning sense of dread at the sight of the stars in front of him. Sure, his heart may be pounding louder than the beating sound of the entire universe right now in anticipation, but it’s only a few beats away from seeing Tony again.

He sees the ship in the distance, coming out from behind that white sun and Steve can feel himself sweating in relief all over. He can breathe. He can relax now. Tony’s going to bring them both home. He doesn’t even realize that he’s crying until Tony asks him if he’s okay.

“Steve, baby. I literally see you in front of me. I am less than two minutes away,” Tony tries to console him. 

“I know,” Steve chokes out in a half-laugh, half-cry. "I'll sit tight."

He touches the glass in front of him, spreading his fingers out so that they look like they’re touching the incoming ship. His tears fog up the glass a little as the lights from the spaceship become a big purple blur. 

Tony comes back on the line as the ship slowly parks right above him. “Good thing you did your reading on this system before we flew out. I mean, you basically memorized the entire map of New Jersey when we went there for a weekend—” 

“That was a mistake.”

“New Jersey? Yeah, well, so was this whole space trip, but am I fucking glad you could tell your Morags from your Terra’s. Saved us a whole lot of trouble, there.” Tony’s ship has come to a full halt now, as a claw lowers down for the extraction. His pod finally gets picked up and as soon as it gets locked back in as the hatch closes, the door opens up. Steve just flings himself at Tony without a care in the world and the sheer weight of him collapses the both of them onto the floor. 

“Captain, I need you to confirm your location for me, please,” Tony says, big eyes looking up at him. Steve brings a hand over his face, fingers tracing his beard, down his neck as he feels his warm, beating pulse.

“I’ll give it to you in just a minute,” Steve says, diving in for a kiss.


End file.
